The Thesis Statement:
Pick and Choose to Make Your Case

Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content and has gained 600K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.

An online devotional for writers

A Word From The Word

The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book.  But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name. (John 20:30-31, NLT)

A Word For Writers

A thesis statement summarizes my content’s main idea and persuades my reader to embrace my point of view. 

I find thesis statements particularly helpful when I write devotional content. The reason is simple: I get excited about the oodles of ways I see God working. Then I end up with too much material. And then I get stuck. One glance at my thesis tells me I’ve headed down a rabbit trail and I need to get back on track. 

But what stays in and what gets eliminated?  Now, that’s a tough choice.

I get great encouragement from writers who have used thesis statements in order to stay on point – writers like the Apostle John. 

He wrote this thesis statement for his biography of Jesus: “The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book,” he said. “But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah” (John 20:30-31, NLT). 

Think of it: Jesus performed plenty of miracles, but the Holy Spirit led John to hand-select certain ones to be included in the gospel of John.  

John had to pick and choose what to include in his book to explain who Jesus is and in order to persuade readers to consider those facts: “So that readers would continue to believe … and have life.”

I pray I can pick and choose wisely.

A Wise Word

Pick and choose content to achieve your project’s purpose.

A Word To Pray

Gracious Father,

You provide me with plenty of material to work with. I ask for wisdom. Let me intentionally pick and choose content to best achieve the purpose of my writing project.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

---

More Devotionals for Writers

The Topic Sentence: Use It to Define a Section of Content ...

The Book Summary: It’s Your Cornerstone as You Write ...

The Vision Statement: 3 Qualities Yours Must Have ...

The Bullet List: Are Yours Random?

The Theme: 66 Examples of Creating a Book’s Main Message ...

The Search Engines: Why Content Writing Works Long-Term ...

The Mission Statement: Paul Used Just Ten Words ...

The List: A Surprising Reason it’s a Good Content Writing Tool ...

The Strategic Plan: Write It Down, Get More Done ...

The Main Idea: One Key to Writing Better Content ...

The Book Manuscript: One Small Part at a Time ...

The Grant Application: A Deadline Is an Opportunity ...

The Fact Check: Truth Is a Powerful Writing Tool ...

The Word Count: It's a Good Reason to Quit Babbling ...

More Devotionals for Writers on our Pinterest board ...

Wise Words: Devotionals for Writers ...

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Powered by SBI! Learn more here.